Mind Break 12/6-12/12

"In 1989, six years before ToyStory, Pixar Animation Studios made this short film."
I love this pixar short film so much. Whenever I see it, the video makes me laugh. ENJOY!

Obama's 2009 Halloween Party

For Barack Obama's first Halloween as President, he spent it handing out candy to "to many of the estimated 2,000 children from 11 area schools on the north portico of the White House." While First Lady, Michelle Obama got into the spirit of Halloween by dressing up as Cat Woman, "Obama stayed in more presidential character, wearing slacks, a checkered shirt, and a black sweater." Susan Rice, a member of Obama's cabinet, "dressed up as the Disney character Goofy..., and the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suited up as Darth Vader..., [but] there is no immediate word on who was dressed and the film's Wookie character Chewbacca, or the Stormtrooper."

Talking about the children at the party President Obama added "They're adorable,... as is, by the way, my wife, a very nice-looking Cat Woman."

Young man killed in District near site of recent double homicide

In a Southeast Washington neighborhood where a double homicide had recently occured, a 19 year-old, Ashton Hunter was shot and killed on October 31st around 8 pm. He was shot and killed south of E. Capitol Street, which is within 200 yards "from the address listed for one of the two people fatally shot last month on Clay Terrace NE. Those killings came during what was characterized as a fight between rival groups...A second homicide was reported in Southeast Washington Saturday night, about one half hour after the first, but about four or five miles away."


This article scares me because the guy was just a few years older than me. This creeps me out because since we are so close in age, I feel like I could have been him.

1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list

"During a 12-month period ended in March this year, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list." These 1,600 people qualify because they have raised a "'reasonable suspicion,' according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week. "

Although some may think that each of these 1,600 names that qualify each day are 1,600 different people, they are wrong. The 1,600 people include "an alias or name variant for a previously watchlisted person."

Here are some interesting facts about the FBI's terrorist watch list:

"The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and 4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government's 'no fly' list.... "Regardless of the reporting source, FBI policy requires that each threat or suspicious incident should receive some level of review and assessment to determine the potential nexus to terrorism," the audit said.

I liked this article because I never knew that there were 1,600 people daily that qualify for the FBI's terrorist watch list. I also liked this article because I like to learn about things that are happening in the Bureau and how they do things (sort the list, get rid of certain names, add others...).

Former Alexandria, Virginia Police Chief David P. Baker arrested for a DUI

Former Alexandria police chief David P. Baker has been denied a new life insurance policy.
Why may you ask? The man who is there to help keep others safe on the roads and people safe in there homes was arrested for a DUI this past July, "when he was caught drunk behind the wheel of an unmarked city car after a fender-bender in Arlington County. In that one moment, the well-respected chief lost it all.

In his cheesy Youtube video titled Even a Police Chief Can Get Nailed Drunk Driving Baker described how he felt being caught. Some of his emotions included fright, humiliation, and disgust. Baker goes on to state some facts about checkpoints in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.. One of which includes that these checkpoints will arrest of 75,000 for drunk driving in the year of 2009. Some effects of a DUI arrest are thousands of dollars for the fine, the loss of your license, time spent behind bars and reactions of those you know, and how they will look at you. The most important effect of getting arrested for a DUI, is that it will never go away (for example because of Barkers arrest, he was not able to get a new life insurance policy). This video ends with the quote, "Are you going to risk everything by drinking and driving? Are you going to kill someone tonight?"

Personally? I think it's stupid for someone to have more drinks than they can handle and to also think that it would be smart to drive after having more than your full of alcohol.

Video from Washington Post and Youtube

Six Uighur Chinese detainees sent to Palau

The Obama administration has sent six Uighur Chinese detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation of Palau. Three of the six, are clients of the center while the other three are represented by other lawyers. An administration official confirmed the detainees had been sent to Palau (small Pacific island north of between australia and Japan). "The transfer leaves 215 detainees at the detention camp that President Obama has pledged to close by Jan. 22, although political and legal hurdles are making it difficult for his administration to meet that goal."

"Palau has agreed to take up to a dozen Uighurs, who come from China's largely Muslim far-west region of Xinjiang and were captured by the U.S. government during the Afghanistan war". Although hey have been deemed not to be "enemy combatants" they have remained at Guantanamo because the prison was having trouble relocating them to another penitentiary.
"Palau has agreed to provide a temporary home for the three men while the United States continues to search for a country where they can be permanently resettled"

I have two questions...

Wasn't Guantanamo supposed to already be closed by now? What's taking so long Obama??
AND
How were they able to figure out whether the people were "enemy combatants" or not?

Investigator Maj. Hachim fatally shot in Baghdad

In Baghdad, a man suspected of having a connection to the October 25th bombings targeting Iraqi ministries, "grabbed a gun from a guard and fatally shot a senior investigator (Maj. Arkan Hachim)". Ministry officials vowed to "investigate the matters behind this incident," because it showed a deliberate neglect for security. The statement taken about the incident states that the suspect wounded the guard, who he took the gun from, "before barging into Hachiim's office and shooting him."

"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked the United Nations to investigate the bombings... By crippling key government agencies, the bombings appear to represent a shift in tactics by a weakened insurgency, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Rather than targeting civilians at places such as markets and mosques in hopes of inflaming sectarian tension, the organizers of the latest attacks appear to be motivated by a desire to weaken the government and discredit Iraq's security forces, as the U.S. military pulls out and Iraqi politicians gear up for an election scheduled for January."

Former state Senate Republican leader Joseph L. Bruno accused of collecting illiegal gratuities

In Albany, New York, Former state Republican leader Joseph L. Bruno,80, " was a top power broker. "On Monday, he faces trial on charges that could tarnish his legacy, send him to prison and serve as a de facto indictment of Albany's oft-criticized political culture." The Federal prosecutors are accusing Bruno of collecting over "$3.2 million in commissions and gifts over 13 years in return for using his state influence to benefit a dozen labor unions and three private businessmen."

Bruno is just another target "in a line of corruption cases against New York officials over the past two decades. [Some examples of how Bruno is not the first to be accused of wrongful doing:]
Assembly Speaker Mel Miller was convicted of fraud in 1991 and Sen. Guy Velella went to jail for bribery conspiracy in 2004. Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi -- reelected while under indictment -- was convicted of using state workers to chauffeur his wife in 2006. This year, former health commissioner Antonia Novello, once the U.S. surgeon general, was convicted of using state workers to help her with shopping and other personal business...Bruno, who grabbed the New York Senate Republican majority's leadership post in a 1994 overthrow, doggedly courted high-tech projects for New York, often in his district. But in many ways, he was an old-time pol, a guy who used phrases like 'a man's man,' occasionally cursed in news conferences, paused to chat with young female reporters and interns, and seethed when he felt a handshake deal was broken... Bruno resigned in the summer of 2008, only months after Democratic Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer -- the political nemesis Bruno..., fell from power in a prostitution scandal. The three-year federal investigation of Bruno led to charges a few months after that."

After the preliminary hearing, Bruno "[has] a lot of confidence... and that a jury will decide our innocence."

Iraqs first DNA Lab

In Iraqs First DNA Lab "they have collected nearly 4,000 samples from unidentified bodies and relatives of people missing after explosions". The year old DNA lab plans to use its resources to "solve new and old mysteries in a country [Iraq] where war and sectarian conflict have created legions of them." Iraq plans on opening "two more labs in the coming years that would work exclusively on mass grave cases... and [can] chine a light on some of the darkest chapters of Iraq's bloody history." Since the opening of the new lab, the scientists have been able to "help out in court cases, by providing scientific evidence into a justice system... [that] has relied almost exclusively on confessions and uncorroborated accusations."

What is the reason for not having a DNA lab earlier? "Sanctions and bans... have obstructed [us] from using this technology," says the Baghdad morgue director Munjid Salahadin.

"the central Baghdad morgue built in the 1930's by the British," until recently has been run by the Shiite militias since the 2003 US-led invasion. Since there was no DNA lab to figure out who the dead decapitated, burned or tortured beyond recognition were, "Thousands were buried in unmarked graves, and morgue officials could do little other than photograph corpses and try to keep track of burial places."


"Iraqi judges, many of whom have been slow to accept the reliability of DNA evidence, increasingly call on morgue officials to help solve crimes and disputes."

Here are some of the cases where the new DNA lab has helped in Iraq's Justice System.

"DNA evidence vindicated a man who took his wife to court accusing her of bearing another man's child.
"Another recent case caught the attention of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who got an aide to call the morgue and demand that the case be given priority because two tribes were about to go to war."
"In another incident, relatives of an inmate in a Baghdad prison killed her when she became pregnant, allegedly after being raped by a guard. Two guards became suspects, but both denied the allegation. The woman's body was brought to the morgue, where scientists obtained a DNA sample from her fetus. The guards were forced to submit samples. One came back as a match."

I think that the creation of Iraqs first DNA lab was one of the best ideas. It will bring closure to many families, and help solve cases which would have been seen and unsolvable in the past.

Whoever figured out how to test DNA and stuff was a genius!!